Retailer store owners need to implement tips and tricks to prevent shoplifting, especially given that this prolific crime costs retailers nearly $48.9 billion in 2016. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), external shoplifting accounts for 36.5% of retail inventory shrinkage. Protecting inventory should be a priority for all retailers because their merchandise is the key investment and source of revenue. There’s nothing more disheartening that realizing that your store has been targeted by shoplifters. Given that The National Association for Shoplifting Prevention advises that approximately one in eleven people in America are shoplifters, you need to implement all the tricks and tips that you can to stop your store being targeted or, at the very least, reduce the incidence of people stealing your stock.

Most retail stores will experience shoplifting at one time or another. However, small retail store owners who aren’t in a financial position to fund advanced security measures are more vulnerable. The good news is that, irrespective of your budget, you can implement techniques to reduce the incidence of shoplifting.

Here are 26 tips and tricks to prevent shoplifting in your retail store:

1. Create a shoplifting prevention strategy

If your retail store is new, you’ll need to create a loss prevention strategy. For existing retailers who already have a shoplifting prevention plan in place, it’s important to make regular updates to your strategy to account for new developments in loss prevention. Your shoplifting prevention plan should include deterrence techniques as well as the procedure if you catch someone stealing from your retail store. Here are some questions to ask yourself to determine how you’ll handle a shoplifter who targets your retail store:

Will you involve the police?

Will you try to deal with the situation in-house?

Is there a price threshold where you’ll take different action, for example, you’ll call the police if the stolen goods cost over $100.

2. Beware of peak shoplifting times

Most shoplifters strike when the store is at its busiest. According to the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, incidents of shoplifting increase between Wednesday and Saturday. Seasonal shoplifting matches high-demand shopping periods. Shoplifters are more likely to strike before Christmas, Easter, and summertime.

3. Avoid profiling customers

A University of Florida study found that many stereotypes of retail shoplifters are untrue. The point is that you should avoid making presumptions about your customer’s criminality. The study found that men stole more than women and middle-aged men who were gainfully employed shoplifted the most. Shoplifters come in all shapes and sizes. All your customers should be treated the same (unless they’ve given you genuine cause for suspicion).

4. Look out for familiar shoplifting methods

Although profiling is discouraged, it’s wise to identify common methods shoplifters use. Shoplifters rarely work alone. The shoplifter is normally accompanied by one or more accomplices to distract your employees. Shoplifters have other ways of stealing from you other than hiding merchandise. They can also switch price tags or attempt to make fraudulent returns. Shoplifters will often use items like strollers, umbrellas, and handbags to hide stolen goods.

5. Identify common suspicious behavior

There are behavioral patterns to watch out for when deciding whether someone is likely to shoplift from your store. Train your staff to keep an eye on customers exhibiting the following behavior:

Picking up random items.

Watching the sales associates.

Taking several items into the dressing room, but only coming out with one item.

6. Add electronic article surveillance

Electronic article surveillance is better known as security tags, which is attached to clothes. This shoplifting prevention tip will incur a cost to your business, but you should consider the savings you’re likely to make. A Cambridge University experiment found that “electronic tagging caused a lasting decrease in shoplifting.” If you find it won’t be financially viable to tag all the items in your store, consider including the cost of adding electronic tags to your high-value stock to your business budget.

7. Fit security cameras

Installing security cameras in your retail store serves a dual purpose. Firstly, security cameras have been shown to reduce the rate of robberies by over 50% and you’re also able to keep an eye on your store (whether you’re present or not). Security cameras offer shoplifting preventative benefits and increase the chances of a prosecution if someone does steal from your store.

8. Adhere to a strict refund and returns policy

A common tactic of shoplifters is to steal your merchandise and try to return it for cash. Your return and refund policy should be clear about the circumstances in which customers can get cash for returns. If your policy states that under no circumstances will customers receive a refund without a valid receipt, stick to your procedure. Making exceptions to your return and refund policies will be seen as a green light to shoplifters to continue targeting your shore. Your store will be regarded as somewhere that shoplifters can get away with committing theft twice with the same item.

9. Maintain an organized store

Consider using visual merchandising not only to increase sales, but also to deter theft. When your store is organized, you can easily spot if items are missing. Most shoplifters find it easier to operate within an environment with the least chance of getting caught. An unorganized and messy store gives thieves more of an opportunity to make off with your product without anyone noticing until it’s too late. Due to the fact that shoplifting is generally not premeditated (73% of adults and 72% of juveniles don’t intend to steal in advance), your store’s layout and design can either encourage or discourage opportunist thieves.

10. Shorten your displays

It’s advisable to design your store to provide you and your employees with maximum visibility. Although long aisles are common in most stores, they make it difficult to keep an eye on what’s happening. Using shorter displays gives you better visibility of your merchandise and what your customers are doing. The aim is to reduce blind spots. Tall displays provide obstructions to your view, which is ideal for shoplifters.

11. Use an alert for your store entrance

This shoplifting prevention tip is particularly suited to small businesses. Shoplifters don’t want you to be alerted to their presence. A simple way of knowing when people enter your store is to install a doorbell or buzzer that rings every time someone comes in. Alerts at your store’s entrance also help you to monitor who’s leaving the store. This is useful as it could draw your attention to someone who has been in your store for an unusually long time.

12. Station your cash register near the exit

A cash register near the exit of your store shows shoplifters that there will be someone around if they try to make off with your merchandise. When shoplifting, the aim is to get in and out as quickly as possible, without being spotted. Stationing employees at a cash register near the exit increases the risk of shoplifters getting caught leaving with stolen goods. Hopefully, this increased risk of getting caught will stop a shoplifter attempting to steal from you.

13. Watch your registers

Although cash register theft is more common with employee theft, shoplifters will steal cash if the opportunity arises. Grabbing cash from the register and running off is a quick-win for the shoplifter, so it’s important to have someone stationed at your cash registers at all times.

14. Keep an eye on the dressing room area

Dressing rooms are another area in your store where staff should be stationed at all times. It’s tempting to leave dressing rooms unattended during quiet periods. However, with no staff monitoring this area, thieves could sneak in and steal your merchandise. When there’s a lull in customers trying on clothes, encourage your staff to remain in the vicinity of the dressing room, so that no one can enter without the number of items being checked.

15. Apply customer service techniques

Providing effective customer service should double up as a sales and loss prevention technique. Train your staff to give customers as much attention as possible, so that no one feels invisible enough to steal your merchandise. The following tactics will benefit your regular customers and deter the ones with dishonorable intentions:

Welcome customers when they enter your store.

Update employees on shoplifting prevention tips and tricks.

Train staff on your inventory, so that they are aware of prices and will recognize if a price has been switched.

16. Prioritize customer relationship-building

Just because a customer visits your shop often doesn’t mean that they aren’t capable of stealing from you. Getting to know your customer on a first name basis and having general chit-chat may help to discourage shoplifters. The more customers you befriend, the more likely the honest ones will look out for your store and report any suspicious behavior.

17. Schedule your team

Create team schedules to ensure that you have full coverage of your store during busy times. Hiring seasonal staff to cover holiday and peak seasons is a useful way to prevent shoplifting. As noted above, there’s a spike in shoplifting before the holiday season starts, so bring more people on board and schedule them to do the most appropriate tasks to boost sales and keep your inventory safe.

18. Deliver shoplifting prevention training

Share your shoplifting policy with your team during your training sessions. Educate them on the process to follow if they suspect someone of stealing your merchandise. Your training should include how to deal with different scenarios around shoplifting, including when a customer who has been accused becomes rude. Inform your staff about how appearing interested in their work and providing great customer service can discourage shoplifters from stealing your items.

19. Secure at-risk merchandise

Small, high-value items are more prone to being targeted by shoplifters. If you stock merchandise that is likely to attract the attention of shoplifters, consider taking extra preventative measures to secure them. You can place these items in a locked display cabinet. Alternatively, you could secure items like phones, cameras, and laptops to a cord to allow customers to handle them securely.

Mirrors can help to get rid of blind spots to enable you to monitor what’s happening in different areas of your store. A common type of mirror for theft deterrence is a rounded security mirror that’s usually placed in the corner of the store. Mirrors will reflect areas of the store that could be hiding places for shoplifters.

22. Put yourself in a shoplifter’s shoes

Take a walk around your store and place yourself in the role of a shoplifter. Think about how thieves want to steal the items that can easily be hidden. The merchandise doesn’t necessarily have to be of high value. As noted previously, most shoplifting is opportunistic. Therefore, placing a cheap (but easy to steal) item in a blind spot will make it hard for a thief to resist. Change your merchandise around to keep shoplifters guessing. A Cambridge University study found that displaying items in less accessible (but visible) places decreased shoplifting incidents. These findings show that, when trying to prevent theft, rearranging merchandise often to keep shoplifters guessing must be coupled with vigilant staff.

23. Apply a bag-check policy

Place a ban on customers entering the dressing room with bags and backpacks. Even with a system to check the number of items going into the dressing room, determined shoplifters can hide additional products, so they won’t be counted. Customers should use the secure lockers provided to check their bags, otherwise they won’t be able to use your dressing room. This minor inconvenience won’t deter genuine shoppers, but shoplifters might leave your store because your back-check policy thwarted their plans.

24. Fully utilize your point of sale (POS) system

Make the most of your POS system by using the features to monitor what comes in and leaves your store. Match the number of merchandise sold to your revenue and investigate further if the numbers don’t reconcile. Keeping on top of your inventories’ movement will help you to spot and deal with negative patterns before they get out of hand. Your POS will steer you and alert you to shrinkage to start inquiries about the source of the theft.

25. Carry out a physical count on your inventory

To be certain that your merchandise isn’t being stolen, supplement POS reports with physical counts of your inventory. Once you’re familiar with the steps to take to conduct a physical inventory count, the process will become easier. The results of physically counting your inventory will help you to decide how you should visually merchandise your store to prevent shrinkage.

33% of juveniles and 57% of adults stated that it was difficult to stop shoplifting even though they have been caught.

Drug addicts have described shoplifting and drugs as equally addictive.

Given the addictive nature of shoplifting, you should do everything it takes to deter thieves from targeting your store. It could be tempting to let shoplifters off for what you consider to be a minor infraction – for example, stealing an item worth $5. However, this approach could cost your business in the long run. You need to determine the message you want to send to the shoplifter. Involving law enforcement whenever possible will spread the word that your store is no easy target. Partner up with your local law enforcement office to get advice on the best way to deal with shoplifters. Making the decision to call the police when you’ve caught someone shoplifting can be tough, but you’ll need to decide what’s best for your business.

Best practices to prevent shoplifting

Just as shoplifters get more imaginative in finding ways to steal from your business, you should always be on the lookout for shoplifting prevention tips and tricks to stay one step ahead. The tips and tricks above can be implemented by big and small business with a range of budgets. There’s no excuse for leaving your business vulnerable to shoplifting with the range of options available to safeguard your merchandise.

What does your business do to prevent theft? Let us know in the comments below.

A good retail manager needs to wear many hats, without compromising any part of their role. They must be capable of running an efficient store, scheduling employees, enforcing company policies and more. A combination of transferable, hard and soft skills are necessary for a successful retail management career.

Hitting sales targets and keeping your team motivated are two of the most important parts of a retail manager job. Your success as a retail manager largely depends on the effectiveness of your employees. Your team needs to be clear about their:

Roles

Responsibilities

Rights

It’s up to you as a retail manager to communicate what’s expected and provide the necessary support to help your team reach their full potential. Your job is to be firm but fair, by providing both constructive criticism and praise, as appropriate.

Demonstrating excellent leadership skills is essential for being a good retail manager. However, this is only part of the requirements to fulfill such a diverse role. Given that the range of skills is so broad, we’ve put together a list of 15 tips that’ll help you excel in your retail management role:

1. Focus on goals
As a retail manager, you’ll have sales targets to meet. These targets will form the basis of setting goals for your team. You need to keep your eye on the prize of meeting your sales objectives in order to continue to encourage your team.

You’ll also need to set achievable and realistic goals for your team. To incentivize your employees, these goals should be tied to a reward system. One way to set up these goals is through Deputy’s Newsfeed and tasking feature. This allows you to receive notifications when a goal has been achieved. Your employees will be able to clearly track how their contributions are impacting the business. Do the following to increase the chance of getting your team’s buy-in when setting goals:

Discuss the goals with your employees (preferably on a one-to-one basis)

Set out how progress will be measured

Discuss how you’ll support your employees to reach their goals

Review goals and progress at specified intervals

2. Be data-driven

Data plays an increasingly important role in the success of retailers. Reliable data will inform you about whether you’re achieving your goals. Assessing your progress should be done by interpreting information gathered from different systems like:

Adopting new technology can be daunting. However, there’s no escaping that it’ll be difficult to be a good retail manager without taking advantage of the latest technology.
Utilizing the right technology will make your job as a retail manager run smoother. You’ll be able to spend less time on routine tasks and dedicate more attention to your team and to customers. The following are only a few of the tasks that are made easier by using technology:

Inventory management

Sales tracking

Employee scheduling

4. Value and save time

The appropriate use of technology is one way that you can save time as a retail manager. In addition, you’ll require top-notch organizational and planning skills to make effective use of all the hours of the day. The pace of retail can be very fast, so the ability to organize time to fit everything in and to handle the unexpected is crucial.
Learning to value and maximize time will help you to:

Experience less stress

Cut-off unnecessary tasks

Get more quality work done

5. Take the lead

Achieving your goals will be easier if you display the type of leadership skills that gives your team confidence. You should be a role model to your team by displaying qualities like:

Professionalism

Empathy

Respect

On the more practical side, a good retail manager will always try to bring out the best in their team by:

Providing training

Creating a team environment

Identifying developmental opportunities

6. Show genuine interest

Your team members are more than employees. They have a life outside of work, therefore, make them feel valued as people, by showing interest. Simple questions around their weekend can spark up conversation and show your team that you care about them as individuals.

Discussing life outside of work can also give you valuable insight when it comes to managing schedules. If you know that an employee is studying or has school-aged children, you’ll be aware of the types of hours to avoid.

There needs to be a healthy balance between taking an interest and giving the impression that you’re best friends with your employees. The right position will enable you to keep your team’s respect, without compromising your professionalism.

7. Match the praise to the effort

Retail turnover is notorious for being one of the highest when compared to other industries. A good retail manager is well aware that dedicated employees are hard to come by. A simple way to keep your employees motivated is to say “thank you.”

Matching the praise to the scale of effort helps reinforce your employees’ desires to go above and beyond for your organization. Deliberately seek out ways that they’ve improved before pointing out areas of development. If possible, show gratitude to your team when they’ve finished their shifts. A sincere “thank you for your contribution today” will go a long way in helping your team feel appreciated.

8. Become comfortable with delegation

It can be tempting to attempt to do everything yourself when you’re a retail manager. A reluctance to delegate can originate from thinking that:

No one else is qualified to do the tasks

Things will get done quicker by doing it yourself

Assigning tasks to your team members is a good way of showing that you trust them. You’re in the best position to judge who has the aptitude for particular jobs, so use this knowledge for task allocation. Giving your team the chance to take on additional responsibilities will develop both their skills and their confidence.

9. Get stuck in

The other side of the delegating coin is a belief that a retail manager no longer has to do certain tasks. While it’s true that the bulk of your time should be spent on high-level work, you should always be prepared to roll-up your sleeves and get stuck in if the need arises.

You’ll gain little respect if, rather than ‘putting your hands to the plow’ all you do is give orders. For example, if you’re short on morning employees to accept deliveries or to clean the store, it’s time to step in to help.

A good retail manager knows when to delegate and to pitch in.

10. Keep calm under pressure

Dealing with consumers comes with the added advantage (or disadvantage) that anything can happen. Whether it’s a disgruntled customer who becomes aggressive or frustrated shoppers waiting in line, your team will take your cue as to the best way to respond.

Pressure in retail doesn’t only come from dealing with customers. Internal team issues can also cause anxiety. What happens when most of your team have called-out? How do you deal with replacing employees at short notice, especially if your store falls within a predictive scheduling jurisdiction?

To be a good retail manager, you’ll need to always be prepared for the unexpected. Your employees are looking to you for guidance and reassurance when things go wrong, so demonstrate that you’re confident in your ability to handle difficult situations.

11. Practice decisiveness

This point is somewhat linked to the previous tip. To be a good retail manager, you’ll need to make quick assessments of situations and make a decision in the best interest of your store and team. Being decisive under pressure is a skill that’ll improve as you face more challenging situations.

12. Create a problem-solving atmosphere

No one person has all the answers. As a retail manager, there may be some ideas that you haven’t thought of. Your employees are your eyes and ears on the shop floor, so they’ll have opinions about how things can be improved.

Nurture an atmosphere where your team feels comfortable making suggestions about better ways to do things. Take every contribution seriously by talking over pros and cons and referring appropriate suggestions to head office. This approach will help to empower employees as they’ll feel they are in a position to make a real difference to the company.

13. Mentor your team
There’s a chance that some employees will want to progress in the retail industry. Were there people who took the time to guide you during your career? If so, it’s time to pay it forward to your team members. A good retail manager will identify employees that will make great leaders and mentor them to fulfill their potential.

Take the time to pass on the knowledge that you’ve gathered to help your employees avoid potential pitfalls. Where it’s challenging to find the time to mentor all of your team, consider matching more experienced workers with newer employees to develop a mentor-mentee relationship.

14. Show confidence when resolving conflict

A good retail manager doesn’t shy away from handling conflict. A fast-paced and high-stress retail environment can create tension between the team. You’ll need to identify and diffuse potential conflicts before things get out of hand. It’s your job to get to the bottom of disagreements by identifying the source of your employees discontent.

Give each employee who’s involved in the conflict the chance to air their grievances separately. Make it clear that you’ll be divulging what was discussed to the other parties in order to reach a fair conclusion. All employees should have the right of reply to the other team member’s version. After you’ve conducted your investigation, it’s up to you to come up with a fair solution to restore order to your team.

15. Promote open communication

Your ability to effectively get your point across and listen to your team will be vital to becoming a good retail manager. You’ll also need to be comfortable and confident communicating with different stakeholders in your business, for example, customers and your own manager.

Take your communication skills up a level by encouraging your team to communicate with you, instead of allowing issues to build-up. Be prepared to listen to your employees even when what they’re saying isn’t palatable. Where employees are encouraged to speak their minds in a respectful way, the chance of conflict is reduced. You’ll need to be open to hearing both positive and negative experiences to provide a better working environment.

Take the communication lead by keeping employees informed about developments in your business. This is especially important if you’re part of a chain. News travels at the speed of light with social media. You’ll want to avoid a situation where your team finds out about something that affects them online before you’ve informed them. Communicate changes in a timely manner so that your employees have enough time to adjust.

There are many facets of being a good retail manager. As well as all the tips above, you’ll need to be resilient to handle everything that can be thrown at you in a day. No two days in retail are the same, so, flexibility and mental strength are also key to adapting and being successful in your role. Whether you’re just starting out or have been in the retail management game for some time, these tips will help you to become a better retail manager for the success of your team and store.

Deputy equips business owners and managers with the tools they need to better manage their employees and grow their business. Unsure if Deputy is right for you? Get a free 30 day trial of Deputy now to see how much our software can benefit your business.

A good retail manager needs to wear many hats, without compromising any part of their role. They must be capable of running an efficient store, scheduling employees, enforcing company policies and more. A combination of transferable, hard and soft skills are necessary for a successful retail management career.

Hitting sales targets and keeping your team motivated are two of the most important parts of a retail manager job. Your success as a retail manager largely depends on the effectiveness of your employees. Your team needs to be clear about their:

Roles

Responsibilities

Rights

It’s up to you as a retail manager to communicate what’s expected and provide the necessary support to help your team reach their full potential. Your job is to be firm but fair, by providing both constructive criticism and praise, as appropriate.

Demonstrating excellent leadership skills is essential for being a good retail manager. However, this is only part of the requirements to fulfill such a diverse role. Given that the range of skills is so broad, we’ve put together a list of 15 tips that’ll help you excel in your retail management role:

1. Focus on goals
As a retail manager, you’ll have sales targets to meet. These targets will form the basis of setting goals for your team. You need to keep your eye on the prize of meeting your sales objectives in order to continue to encourage your team.

You’ll also need to set achievable and realistic goals for your team. To incentivize your employees, these goals should be tied to a reward system. One way to set up these goals is through Deputy’s Newsfeed and tasking feature. This allows you to receive notifications when a goal has been achieved. Your employees will be able to clearly track how their contributions are impacting the business. Do the following to increase the chance of getting your team’s buy-in when setting goals:

Discuss the goals with your employees (preferably on a one-to-one basis)

Set out how progress will be measured

Discuss how you’ll support your employees to reach their goals

Review goals and progress at specified intervals

2. Be data-driven

Data plays an increasingly important role in the success of retailers. Reliable data will inform you about whether you’re achieving your goals. Assessing your progress should be done by interpreting information gathered from different systems like:

Adopting new technology can be daunting. However, there’s no escaping that it’ll be difficult to be a good retail manager without taking advantage of the latest technology.
Utilizing the right technology will make your job as a retail manager run smoother. You’ll be able to spend less time on routine tasks and dedicate more attention to your team and to customers. The following are only a few of the tasks that are made easier by using technology:

The appropriate use of technology is one way that you can save time as a retail manager. In addition, you’ll require top-notch organizational and planning skills to make effective use of all the hours of the day. The pace of retail can be very fast, so the ability to organize the time to fit everything in and to handle the unexpected is crucial.
Learning to value and maximize time will help you to:

Experience less stress

Cut-off unnecessary tasks

Get more quality work done

5. Take the lead

Achieving your goals will be easier if you display the type of leadership skills that gives your team confidence. You should be a role model to your team by displaying qualities like:

Professionalism

Empathy

Respect

On the more practical side, a good retail manager will always try to bring out the best in their team by:

Providing training

Creating a team environment

Identifying developmental opportunities

6. Show genuine interest

Your team members are more than employees. They have a life outside of work, therefore, make them feel valued as people, by showing interest. Simple questions around their weekend can spark up a conversation and show your team that you care about them as individuals.

Discussing life outside of work can also give you valuable insight when it comes to managing schedules. If you know that an employee is studying or has school-aged children, you’ll be aware of the types of hours to avoid.

There needs to be a healthy balance between taking an interest and giving the impression that you’re best friends with your employees. The right position will enable you to keep your team’s respect, without compromising your professionalism.

Matching the praise to the scale of effort helps reinforce your employees’ desires to go above and beyond for your organization. Deliberately seek out ways that they’ve improved before pointing out areas of development. If possible, show gratitude to your team when they’ve finished their shifts. A sincere “thank you for your contribution today” will go a long way in helping your team feel appreciated.

8. Become comfortable with delegation

It can be tempting to attempt to do everything yourself when you’re a retail manager. A reluctance to delegate can originate from thinking that:

No one else is qualified to do the tasks

Things will get done quicker by doing it yourself

Assigning tasks to your team members is a good way of showing that you trust them. You’re in the best position to judge who has the aptitude for particular jobs, so use this knowledge for task allocation. Giving your team the chance to take on additional responsibilities will develop both their skills and their confidence.

9. Get stuck in

The other side of the delegating coin is a belief that a retail manager no longer has to do certain tasks. While it’s true that the bulk of your time should be spent on high-level work, you should always be prepared to roll-up your sleeves and get stuck in if the need arises.

You’ll gain little respect if, rather than ‘putting your hands to the plow’ all you do is give orders. For example, if you’re short on morning employees to accept deliveries or to clean the store, it’s time to step in to help.

A good retail manager knows when to delegate and to pitch in.

10. Keep calm under pressure

Dealing with consumers comes with the added advantage (or disadvantage) that anything can happen. Whether it’s a disgruntled customer who becomes aggressive or frustrated shoppers waiting in line, your team will take your cue as to the best way to respond.

The pressure in retail doesn’t only come from dealing with customers. Internal team issues can also cause anxiety. What happens when most of your team have called-out? How do you deal with replacing employees at short notice, especially if your store falls within a predictive scheduling jurisdiction?

To be a good retail manager, you’ll need to always be prepared for the unexpected. Your employees are looking to you for guidance and reassurance when things go wrong, so demonstrate that you’re confident in your ability to handle difficult situations.

No one person has all the answers. As a retail manager, there may be some ideas that you haven’t thought of. Your employees are your eyes and ears on the shop floor, so they’ll have opinions about how things can be improved.

Nurture an atmosphere where your team feels comfortable making suggestions about better ways to do things. Take every contribution seriously by talking over pros and cons and referring appropriate suggestions to head office. This approach will help to empower employees as they’ll feel they are in a position to make a real difference to the company.

13. Mentor your team
There’s a chance that some employees will want to progress in the retail industry. Were there people who took the time to guide you during your career? If so, it’s time to pay it forward to your team members. A good retail manager will identify employees that will make great leaders and mentor them to fulfill their potential.

Take the time to pass on the knowledge that you’ve gathered to help your employees avoid potential pitfalls. Where it’s challenging to find the time to mentor all of your team, consider matching more experienced workers with newer employees to develop a mentor-mentee relationship.

14. Show confidence when resolving conflict

A good retail manager doesn’t shy away from handling conflict. A fast-paced and high-stress retail environment can create tension between the team. You’ll need to identify and diffuse potential conflicts before things get out of hand. It’s your job to get to the bottom of disagreements by identifying the source of your employees discontent.

Give each employee who’s involved in the conflict the chance to air their grievances separately. Make it clear that you’ll be divulging what was discussed to the other parties in order to reach a fair conclusion. All employees should have the right of reply to the other team member’s version. After you’ve conducted your investigation, it’s up to you to come up with a fair solution to restore order to your team.

15. Promote open communication

Your ability to effectively get your point across and listen to your team will be vital to becoming a good retail manager. You’ll also need to be comfortable and confident communicating with different stakeholders in your business, for example, customers and your own manager.

Take your communication skills up a level by encouraging your team to communicate with you, instead of allowing issues to build-up. Be prepared to listen to your employees even when what they’re saying isn’t palatable. Where employees are encouraged to speak their minds in a respectful way, the chance of conflict is reduced. You’ll need to be open to hearing both positive and negative experiences to provide a better working environment.

Take the communication lead by keeping employees informed about developments in your business. This is especially important if you’re part of a chain. News travels at the speed of light with social media. You’ll want to avoid a situation where your team finds out about something that affects them online before you’ve informed them. Communicate changes in a timely manner so that your employees have enough time to adjust.

There are many facets of being a good retail manager. As well as all the tips above, you’ll need to be resilient to handle everything that can be thrown at you in a day. No two days in retail are the same, so, flexibility and mental strength are also key to adapting and being successful in your role. Whether you’re just starting out or have been in the retail management game for some time, these tips will help you to become a better retail manager for the success of your team and store.

Deputy equips business owners and managers with the tools they need to better manage their employees and grow their business. Unsure if Deputy is right for you? Get a free 30 day trial of Deputy now to see how much our software can benefit your business.

Who: Good Games AustraliaWhat: Games retailer supporting gaming communities across AustraliaWhere: Australia and beyond

Can you tell us a little bit about how you got started and what you’re all about?

Good Games was founded in 2006 with the first opening of our flagship store: Good Games Sydney Central. 10 years later, we now have 24 Good Games stores across Australia and we’re one of the largest brands of local game stores in Asia-Pacific.

Our stores have dedicated gaming environments with all the latest hardware. We host tournaments and events, with extended opening hours to cater to those night-owls that are out and about. Gamers are welcome to drop by at anytime!

What’s your local community like?

Our local community play a fundamental part in sustaining our business. So naturally, we want to give them the best experience possible! That’s why our Good Games franchises focus on providing a free-to-use gaming space for anyone who comes into the store.

What brought you to Vend and how have you found it? Would you recommend Vend to retailers like you?

Vend was introduced to us by one of our franchisees. We found it incredibly useful and it’s now the solution we recommend to any new franchises opening up. Not to mention, we like to look the part by using modern point-of-sale technology. We’re currently using Vend on PCs, and have tried it out on tablets in the past too. We’d recommend it to other retailers like us for sure.

What does your passion come from for what you do?

Know anyone who doesn’t like games? Creating a fun, interactive environment for our community definitely makes our job exciting. And of course, we get to talk about our favourite thing everyday – games!

You have multiple stores around the country, what do you find challenging about managing all these stores simultaneously and how has Vend helped with this?

Vend is able to provide crucial data, like the number of products we have on hand, with just a few quick keystrokes! And it’s brought us a far easier way of generating sales and product reports. It saves us a lot of extra admin work, so we can focus more on providing an exceptional in-store experience for our community.

Do you have any advice for retailers that you wish you’d known?

Have the proper procedures and training in place, and make sure to give new employees a full rundown. Especially in such an inventory-intensive business like ours, you want to make sure things are done the right way so everything’s accounted for. Even with a great inventory system, procedures are still necessary! And if you’re rolling out a new system, make sure to have these practiced and laid out beforehand.

What’s your best retail tale?

The simplest story is normally the best story, so here we go! A customer came in asking for an item, I checked on our Sell Screen, and with one keystroke I’m able to find out which store has it and how many they have! Easy.

Can you tell us a little bit about how you got started and what you’re all about?

Mary & Me started as a place to promote emerging and established Australian fashion designers. We now stock over 30 labels and have expanded our range to include accessories, art and gifts.

I first started working in retail in my late teens. I didn’t expect to return years after my university studies, but a role at Mary & Me sparked my interest and I came onboard to manage IT Operations and Marketing. The industry has changed so much! What really excites me each day is the amount of data at your fingertips that previously never existed, especially for us smaller players.

What is your local community like?

If you haven’t heard of Dubbo before it’s about a 5 hour drive north west and inland from Sydney, Australia with a population of over 35,000. There isn’t a grand selection of women’s fashion stores to choose from unless you want to do the long drive into Sydney or shop online.

Mary & Me is a modern day business for Dubbo thanks to the technology and hardware we use. We carefully curate all our products we sell both online and in-store. We use Vend for our point-of-sale, Xero for accounting, Collect for customer loyalty, and Shopify to power our thriving Ecommerce site. We’ve grown so much since I joined. A month ago we moved to a bigger premises enabling us to expand our product range and storefront teams.

What brought you to Vend and how have you found it? Would you recommend Vend to retailers like you?

Mary & Me has been using Vend for some time, mostly for point-of-sale in the past. When the business changed hands and I came onboard, Tom (the owner) wanted expert help to take advantage of all the data Vend serves up. We met Vend experts SMB Consultants at Life InStyle, a boutique trade event focused on homeware & gifts last February. SMB Consultants have played a fundamental role in enabling our entire team to start making the most of all of Vend’s great features. Our operations are now running so smoothly!

What’s your set-up like?

We use iPads for our register and I literally live on our Mac when monitoring the backend. Our set-up feels like an Apple store, it’s so clean and modern! Not many stores in Dubbo have a set-up like ours. We really hope we’re setting the benchmark for in-store solutions in today’s ever-changing retail world. I still love our storefront team reaction when we first started selling with an iPad.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe you can use an iPad to manage your business.”

Would you recommend Vend to retailers like you?

Would I recommend Vend? Most definitely. I love the user-friendliness, and the navigation really echoes that of an Apple product. It was certainly built for time-poor retailers like us. Loading inventory is easy and we can quickly see how sales are tracking in the retail dashboard.

Closing our register used to be a 40-minute procedure, now it’s fast and super easy. I use the retail dashboard daily to check average spend per customer, and base in-store promotions off that. Our promotions are far more agile with all this extra information.

Do you have any advice for retailers that you wish you’d known?

My advice to retailers is not be afraid of new technology. Celebrate it and nurture it and it will look after you. If you’re stuck, leverage experts to assist you and broaden your knowledge.

What’s your best retail tale?

We recently had an older customer come into the store who was about to travel to Sydney for a ball, and was looking for something special to wear. Since having children, she hadn’t been out of the house or done anything special in a very long time. She was reluctant about attending and quite nervous, but wanted to accompany her husband as he was really looking forward to the event.

Our sales assistant found the perfect evening dress for her that was completely sequinned, and helped her all the way from jewelry to how she should wear her hair. The customer let our sales team know she hadn’t felt that beautiful since her wedding day. She brought photos of herself at the ball into the store the following week and was so thankful for finding her dream dress. She felt like the most beautiful woman at the ball!

This is where retail design comes in. If you’re a running a brick-and-mortar store, it’s important that you take some time to thoughtfully arrange merchandise to maximize conversions.

That’s exactly what we’ll be talking about today. This article outlines 8 retail design insights that you can use to draw people in and entice them to buy.

1. Set your layout based on the flow of traffic in-store

You want people to see your best and most enticing products or displays first, so you’ll need to know where they go or turn to when they enter your shop. Do they tend to move to the left or right? Where do their eyes go? These are just some of the questions you should ask when merchandising your store.

Fortunately, research offers some insights into retail traffic patterns. Studies have shown that that the flow of traffic in-store may actually be influenced by vehicular patterns on the road. In the book Inside the Mind of the Shopper by Herb Sorensen, he notes:

The pattern of movement in the supermarket is counterclockwise in the United States, but PathTracker studies in the UK, Australia, and Japan show a much greater tendency for shoppers to move in a clockwise pattern there… traffic patterns in the store may also be affected by vehicle traffic patterns outside. In these small studies, we noted that in countries with right-hand driving, where traffic circles move in a clockwise pattern, shoppers in stores may be more comfortable moving the same direction.

With this information in mind, it may behoove you to lead customers to the right if you’re in the United States or in a country that enforces right-hand traffic. But if you’re in the UK or Australia, it may be best to arrange your store to support people moving in a clockwise direction.

That said, while research certainly offers some insights into in-store traffic, you shouldn’t base all your merchandising decisions on external studies alone. Be sure to make your own observations to figure out the traffic patterns of your own customers.

Use foot traffic tools to analyze how customers move about in your store, or just be more observant and pay attention to where shoppers go and the things they look at when they come in.

2. Don’t put merchandise in the decompression zone

Avoid putting too many products or signs near your entrance (aka: the “decompression zone”). Shoppers in this part of the store likely still adjusting to the new environment, so they tend to miss any items or fixtures in this area.

As Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, told Entrepreneur, “By the time the person is starting to engage with the physical environment, some of the stuff you’ve put by the door is blown past.”

According to him, it’s best to display just a small number of items in this area, and make sure that the flooring and lighting contrasts the outside environment. And if you have shopping carts or baskets in the store, consider placing them at the end of the decompression zone.

Clearly, if you aren’t leveraging your checkout space, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. So encourage those impulse purchases by setting up displays on your checkout counter.

They don’t have to big or fancy; as we mentioned in our previous post, the best impulse buys are easy to grasp–both physically and mentally. They should be simple and inexpensive enough that you won’t have to do any explaining to the shopper.

Have a look at what Bath & Body Works is doing. To encourage customers to purchase their bath foam, they’ve displayed the items on the checkout counter and even threw in a limited-time offer to sweeten the deal.

4. Add breaks or speed bumps.

Having the same fixtures or aisles in your store could result in shoppers skipping over your merchandise.

Brian Dyches, chief experience officer at Ikonic Tonic told Entrepreneur that upon studying shopping patterns, they found that “up to 20 percent of the store’s merchandise is skipped over” because of long uninterrupted aisles. To address this, Dyches recommends that retailers create visual breaks in the middle of long aisles. These breaks can come in the form of signs or displays.

We can see a lot of supermarkets putting this tactic into action. Since these types of stores have a lot of aisles, supermarkets often place large, attention-grabbing displays at end of their aisles invigorate their store layouts.

Melissa Gonzalez, brand activation & pop-up architect at The Lionesque Group echoes this advice and says that setting up “speed bumps” in-store is a good way to keep shoppers intrigued. These bumps can be “well merchandised outfits, deeper information about key product offerings, an interactive element such as touch screens or augmented reality like Perch Interactive.”

5. Create a focal point in all your displays

While it’s tempting to try to bring attention to anything and everything in your store, tried-and-tested design principles tell us that having just one focal point (preferably at eye level) is far more effective in drawing people in.

So whether you’re arranging your latest window display or setting up a new fixture in the middle of your store, be sure to design it with one focal point in mind. Pick one thing that you want to highlight, position it at eye level, then strategically position other items and lights to bring attention to it.

In doing so, your displays will have greater chances of catching the attention of shoppers. And once you have them hooked, they’ll naturally check out the other products around the focal point.

Check out this display at Elevator, an accessories and jewellry store in Toronto. You can see they put the focal point principle to good use by choosing to highlight just one item and laying out the rest beneath it.

6. Don’t overstuff the space

Have enough open space in your store so people can really appreciate your products, and move around without bumping into merchandise or other shoppers. Doing so will benefit you in two ways:

It’ll prevent the “butt-brush effect”

In his book Why We Buy, Paco Underhill talks about the butt-brush effect, a phenomenon wherein shoppers would abandon a display or product they were looking at when they were bumped once or twice from behind.

He wrote:

While reviewing the tape to study how shoppers negotiated the doorway during busy times, we began to notice something weird about the tie rack. Shoppers would approach it, stop and shop until they were bumped once or twice by people heading into or out of the store. After a few such jostles, most of the shoppers would move out of the way, abandoning their search for neckwear. We watched this over and over until it seemed clear that shoppers — women especially, though it was also true of men to a lesser extent — don’t like being brushed or touched from behind. They’ll even move away from merchandise they’re interested in to avoid it.

If you have spaces in your store that subject shoppers to the butt-brush effect, you could be losing customers and sales. Take a look around and free up any tight spots that could be making people uncomfortable.

It keeps your store light and airy

In addition to letting people have their personal space, having a roomy store allows customers to better appreciate your merchandise. It makes them feel like a store is thoughtfully curated.

As Niko Downie, owner of Elevator said, “we make everything feel very well curated. Rather than just packing merchandise in and shoving as much as we can into one shelf, we try to make every single part of the store look very well-thought out, very clean, very neat, and not too overcrowded. And that really compliments the way we merchandise and showcase our products because it keep things light and airy. We could throw in really beautiful and stylized pieces like our lighting, but it doesn’t overwhelm the space.”

7. Use signs wisely

Attractive, well-positioned signs will not only catch people’s attention, they can add value your displays and the shopping experience overall. In addition to setting up eye-catching signs to entice people to check out your new arrivals or promotions, find ways to use signage to inform and educate.

Take for example, Sports Authority. The sporting goods retailer has signage beside some of its merchandise to highlight the best uses for its products. These signs not only compliment their fixtures and designs, they also help people make the right purchase decisions.

8. Update your displays regularly

Design and appearance aren’t the only factors that contribute to success of your retail displays. How often you update them also matters. Displays get stale pretty quickly in retail, so change them up regularly.

This is where retail design comes in. If you’re a running a brick-and-mortar store, it’s important that you take some time to thoughtfully arrange merchandise to maximize conversions.

That’s exactly what we’ll be talking about today. This article outlines 8 retail design insights that you can use to draw people in and entice them to buy.

1. Set your layout based on the flow of traffic in-store

You want people to see your best and most enticing products or displays first, so you’ll need to know where they go or turn to when they enter your shop. Do they tend to move to the left or right? Where do their eyes go? These are just some of the questions you should ask when merchandising your store.

Fortunately, research offers some insights into retail traffic patterns. Studies have shown that that the flow of traffic in-store may actually be influenced by vehicular patterns on the road. In the book Inside the Mind of the Shopper by Herb Sorensen, he notes:

The pattern of movement in the supermarket is counterclockwise in the United States, but PathTracker studies in the UK, Australia, and Japan show a much greater tendency for shoppers to move in a clockwise pattern there… traffic patterns in the store may also be affected by vehicle traffic patterns outside. In these small studies, we noted that in countries with right-hand driving, where traffic circles move in a clockwise pattern, shoppers in stores may be more comfortable moving the same direction.

With this information in mind, it may behoove you to lead customers to the right if you’re in the United States or in a country that enforces right-hand traffic. But if you’re in the UK or Australia, it may be best to arrange your store to support people moving in a clockwise direction.

That said, while research certainly offers some insights into in-store traffic, you shouldn’t base all your merchandising decisions on external studies alone. Be sure to make your own observations to figure out the traffic patterns of your own customers.

Use foot traffic tools to analyze how customers move about in your store, or just be more observant and pay attention to where shoppers go and the things they look at when they come in.

2. Don’t put merchandise in the decompression zone

Avoid putting too many products or signs near your entrance (aka: the “decompression zone”). Shoppers in this part of the store likely still adjusting to the new environment, so they tend to miss any items or fixtures in this area.

As Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, told Entrepreneur, “By the time the person is starting to engage with the physical environment, some of the stuff you’ve put by the door is blown past.”

According to him, it’s best to display just a small number of items in this area, and make sure that the flooring and lighting contrasts the outside environment. And if you have shopping carts or baskets in the store, consider placing them at the end of the decompression zone.

Clearly, if you aren’t leveraging your checkout space, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. So encourage those impulse purchases by setting up displays on your checkout counter.

They don’t have to big or fancy; as we mentioned in our previous post, the best impulse buys are easy to grasp–both physically and mentally. They should be simple and inexpensive enough that you won’t have to do any explaining to the shopper.

Have a look at what Bath & Body Works is doing. To encourage customers to purchase their bath foam, they’ve displayed the items on the checkout counter and even threw in a limited-time offer to sweeten the deal.

4. Add breaks or speed bumps.

Having the same fixtures or aisles in your store could result in shoppers skipping over your merchandise.

Brian Dyches, chief experience officer at Ikonic Tonic told Entrepreneur that upon studying shopping patterns, they found that “up to 20 percent of the store’s merchandise is skipped over” because of long uninterrupted aisles. To address this, Dyches recommends that retailers create visual breaks in the middle of long aisles. These breaks can come in the form of signs or displays.

We can see a lot of supermarkets putting this tactic into action. Since these types of stores have a lot of aisles, supermarkets often place large, attention-grabbing displays at end of their aisles invigorate their store layouts.

Melissa Gonzalez, brand activation & pop-up architect at The Lionesque Group echoes this advice and says that setting up “speed bumps” in-store is a good way to keep shoppers intrigued. These bumps can be “well merchandised outfits, deeper information about key product offerings, an interactive element such as touch screens or augmented reality like Perch Interactive.”

5. Create a focal point in all your displays

While it’s tempting to try to bring attention to anything and everything in your store, tried-and-tested design principles tell us that having just one focal point (preferably at eye level) is far more effective in drawing people in.

So whether you’re arranging your latest window display or setting up a new fixture in the middle of your store, be sure to design it with one focal point in mind. Pick one thing that you want to highlight, position it at eye level, then strategically position other items and lights to bring attention to it.

In doing so, your displays will have greater chances of catching the attention of shoppers. And once you have them hooked, they’ll naturally check out the other products around the focal point.

Check out this display at Elevator, an accessories and jewellry store in Toronto. You can see they put the focal point principle to good use by choosing to highlight just one item and laying out the rest beneath it.

6. Don’t overstuff the space

Have enough open space in your store so people can really appreciate your products, and move around without bumping into merchandise or other shoppers. Doing so will benefit you in two ways:

It’ll prevent the “butt-brush effect”

In his book Why We Buy, Paco Underhill talks about the butt-brush effect, a phenomenon wherein shoppers would abandon a display or product they were looking at when they were bumped once or twice from behind.

He wrote:

While reviewing the tape to study how shoppers negotiated the doorway during busy times, we began to notice something weird about the tie rack. Shoppers would approach it, stop and shop until they were bumped once or twice by people heading into or out of the store. After a few such jostles, most of the shoppers would move out of the way, abandoning their search for neckwear. We watched this over and over until it seemed clear that shoppers — women especially, though it was also true of men to a lesser extent — don’t like being brushed or touched from behind. They’ll even move away from merchandise they’re interested in to avoid it.

If you have spaces in your store that subject shoppers to the butt-brush effect, you could be losing customers and sales. Take a look around and free up any tight spots that could be making people uncomfortable.

It keeps your store light and airy

In addition to letting people have their personal space, having a roomy store allows customers to better appreciate your merchandise. It makes them feel like a store is thoughtfully curated.

As Niko Downie, owner of Elevator said, “we make everything feel very well curated. Rather than just packing merchandise in and shoving as much as we can into one shelf, we try to make every single part of the store look very well-thought out, very clean, very neat, and not too overcrowded. And that really compliments the way we merchandise and showcase our products because it keep things light and airy. We could throw in really beautiful and stylized pieces like our lighting, but it doesn’t overwhelm the space.”

7. Use signs wisely

Attractive, well-positioned signs will not only catch people’s attention, they can add value your displays and the shopping experience overall. In addition to setting up eye-catching signs to entice people to check out your new arrivals or promotions, find ways to use signage to inform and educate.

Take for example, Sports Authority. The sporting goods retailer has signage beside some of its merchandise to highlight the best uses for its products. These signs not only compliment their fixtures and designs, they also help people make the right purchase decisions.

8. Update your displays regularly

Design and appearance aren’t the only factors that contribute to success of your retail displays. How often you update them also matters. Displays get stale pretty quickly in retail, so change them up regularly.

For home and gift shops, the retail landscape is more competitive than ever. Since these stores sell a lot of what consumers might consider commodities, it’s easy to lose out on establishments selling the same items for less.

Fortunately, your business doesn’t have to undergo the same fate. With some creative and modern tactics, you’ll be able to differentiate yourself and win over customers without competing on price or products.

Read on to learn more:

Add value through services

Providing services that your customers can’t get from other homeware or gift stores can be an effective way to set yourself apart from competitors and add value to the shopping experience. Here are some things you could try:

Gift wrapping – Consider offering gift-wrapping services in your store. Not only will it serve as a convenient option for shoppers, but it can put extra revenue in your pocket at the same time. Even if the service itself is complimentary, you could use boxes and wrappers as upsells to shoppers.

Consultations – Depending on what type of store you’re running, you could provide consultations to help customers make the right purchases.

Check out what The Container Store is doing. The retailer, which specializes in storage and organizational tools, offers an in-home organization service called Contained Home. For a fee, a professional organizer will come to your home and offer advice as well as organizational services to spruce up your space.

Classes or events – Bring people together in your shop for a few hours of learning and mingling. Plenty of forward-thinking retailers are now holding in-store classes and events that drive traffic, sales, and customer engagement.

Take for instance, Michael’s. To better connect with customers and add value to the in-store experience, the arts and crafts retailer holds classes on various DIY or art projects. Topics include cake decoration, knitting, jewelry making, and more.

A good example of this in action can be seen in Sustainable NYC, a store that focuses on green and sustainable products. Sustainable NYC has a cafe on-site, which according to owner Dominique Camacho, has been a boon for business.

“We love how people come in here every five minutes. Just having the traffic—it makes a difference,” she told GiftShopMag.com.

Understandably, having an in-store cafe isn’t always feasible, but that doesn’t mean you can’t apply a few food and drink components in your store. Why not hold events and serve nibbles or hors’devours? Or consider offering some refreshments to your customers as they browse your shop.

Leverage technology

Technology will not only ease many operational burdens, it can also improve your customers’ in-store experience. Of course, the types of solutions you should adopt will depend on your business. Below are a few examples of how other retailers are leveraging technology in their stores:

Mobile POS – If you’re still using a cash register to manage your retail business, consider adopting a modern point of sale system to streamline various business processes and enhance the shopping experience.

Many point of sale solutions these days go beyond simply letting you ring up sales. A lot of them come with inventory and customer management features that can make running your store a whole lot easier.

When it comes to the in-store experience, these solutions allow associates to assist shoppers better. Tablet-based tools allow them to serve customers from anywhere in the store and mPOS systems can reduce lines at checkout, so customers can get what they need much faster.

Case in point: Borough Kitchen. The cookware retailer stays on top of operations during their busiest hours with the help of their iPad POS. Whenever things get busy in-store, they simply switch open their additional iPad registers so they can serve customers faster.

“Within our shops, at peak times, and in particular at Christmas time, we can add a new till instantly by switching on another iPad,” says founders David Caldana & Justin Kowbel. “That just wouldn’t work with a traditional till system.”

Robust reporting and analytics – Having access to the right insights can help you make more intelligent business decisions. This is why it pays to invest in reporting and analytics technology that’ll help you collect and analyze the data you need.

Most modern POS solutions come with their own reporting features, so if you’re already using one, be sure to take advantage of your provider’s data and analytics tools. Ideally, you’ll want a solution that tracks important retail metrics including revenue, margins, profit, conversions, and more.

One great example of a gift shop that’s making good use of reports is Podarok. The UK-based retailer drills down on their sales data and makes staffing and product decisions accordingly.

“My favorite feature has to be the sales reports. By day, by month, by period, by hour, but most importantly, by supplier, says Podarok’s Andrey Pronin. “We can predict what is going to happen next year and therefore plan our staff rosters and product ordering in advance.”

The above-mentioned technologies are just a few examples of tools that you can adopt in your business. They’re certainly worth checking out if you’re looking to upgrade things in your store.

However, the best way to determine which technologies are right for you is to do a bit of research yourself. Identify any issues in your store and look into how technology can address them. Once you’ve found tools that you can implement, test them out and gather feedback from users to find out if they’re right fit for your store.

Get out there and freshen up your inventory

If your products aren’t selling, you should consider freshening up your merchandise. Go out there, talk to your customers, see what’s trending, and use those insights the next time you order new products.

That’s what Cat Socrates, a beautiful design shop in Singapore, is doing. According to owner Hellen Jiang, Cat Socrates has a lot of regular customers, so keeping their product assortment fresh is a must.

“We’re always trying to find new brands and items, and we look at sales reports to determine the quantity and type of goods,” she said. On top of that, “we listen to feedback from our customers.”

Conclusion

Staying competitive in the gift and homeware industry can be tough, but with the right products, tools, and in-store strategies, this task is completely doable. We hope the tips above gave you some ideas that you can implement in your stores.

Have more tips for gift shop and homeware storeowners? Weigh in below.

Flip Out Trampoline Arena is Australia’s first and largest trampoline playground with franchises all over Australia and throughout the globe. Flip Out was built for everyone’s enjoyment, from young children to grandparents and everyone in between. They provide a healthy and awesome way of having fun with their massive trampolines, ball games, events, and many more surprises. We spoke to owner/CEO Brent Gundy and co-owner Jake Matthews to find out a bit more about what inspires them, challenges they’ve faced, and any advice they have for retailers interested in branching out nationally or globally.

Can you tell us a little bit about how you got started and what you’re all about?

Jake: The idea for Flip Out first came about when Brent was sitting in a play centre waiting for a kid’s party to finish, when a child was refused entry for being too old. Having read the newspaper three times over he thought, there must be a better way of doing this! So he started designing the layout which we have today. Now people of any age can jump in and join the party! And that’s what Flip Out Culture (F.O.C.) is all about. It’s not just trampolining, it’s all about having fun. It’s a way of life. There are no shortcuts in building this big green dream but we’re having a lot of fun along the way.

What brought you to Vend and how have you found it? Would you recommend Vend to retailers like you?

Jake: We started using Vend from my own recommendation, actually! I’d been using Vend for about a year in my own business, Unreal Mini Golf. Being always on-the-go, it was really helpful keeping an eye on sales from any location. And seeing trends in reporting made a big difference in staying positive when business got quiet, as you could see this becoming a part of a steady pattern. With the big plans we had for Flip Out, choosing Vend was a no-brainer. So we’d definitely recommend it to other multi-outlet retailers!

What does your passion come from for what you do?

Brent: The fun! Seeing kids genuinely have fun quality time with their parents. And watching both the children’s and parents’ eyes go wide when they see our play centres for the first time. This is what drives our innovation and inspires us to keep growing. We’re constantly thinking about new ways of surprising people to keep that excitement building.

What’s your best retail tale?

Brent: We’ve had so many great tales, but the one that first comes to mind was our moment with a young boy with cerebral palsy. We wanted him to fully experience the sensation of Flip Out, so we put together a bungee system for him to use. His mum was so moved. Our entire staff watched the whole thing in amazement. It was the best feeling!

Do you have any advice for retailers that you wish you’d known?

Jake: Keep pressing buttons. Do your best to break whatever system it is you’re implementing because if it’s breakable, then it’s not the best it can be. And the same goes with Vend! I’ve always played around with it to discover the best way to get things done.

You have multiple franchises around the country, how has Vend helped with managing all these stores simultaneously?

Brent: Vend has set up a great foundation on which to set up a franchisee. The groundwork is already laid, the standard is set. And then they’re free to build their store on top of that however best suits them! It saves us a lot of time and resources setting up, and it brings consistency across our franchises.

What’s the best thing about using iPads in a lot of your franchises compared to traditional cash registers?

Jake: Everything’s backed up. So if an iPad breaks or something has affected an iPad, I’m not replacing an entire system. Not to mention, traditional cash registers were complicated, and a lot of staff struggled trying to program the register. With Vend I’ve found that even the least tech-savvy staff can change prices or add in a new product. It’s just easy!

Flip Out Trampoline Arena is Australia’s first and largest trampoline playground with franchises all over Australia and throughout the globe. Flip Out was built for everyone’s enjoyment, from young children to grandparents and everyone in between. They provide a healthy and awesome way of having fun with their massive trampolines, ball games, events, and many more surprises. We spoke to owner/CEO Brent Gundy and co-owner Jake Matthews to find out a bit more about what inspires them, challenges they’ve faced, and any advice they have for retailers interested in branching out nationally or globally.

Can you tell us a little bit about how you got started and what you’re all about?

Jake: The idea for Flip Out first came about when Brent was sitting in a play centre waiting for a kid’s party to finish, when a child was refused entry for being too old. Having read the newspaper three times over he thought, there must be a better way of doing this! So he started designing the layout which we have today. Now people of any age can jump in and join the party! And that’s what Flip Out Culture (F.O.C.) is all about. It’s not just trampolining, it’s all about having fun. It’s a way of life. There are no shortcuts in building this big green dream but we’re having a lot of fun along the way.

What brought you to Vend and how have you found it? Would you recommend Vend to retailers like you?

Jake: We started using Vend from my own recommendation, actually! I’d been using Vend for about a year in my own business, Unreal Mini Golf. Being always on-the-go, it was really helpful keeping an eye on sales from any location. And seeing trends in reporting made a big difference in staying positive when business got quiet, as you could see this becoming a part of a steady pattern. With the big plans we had for Flip Out, choosing Vend was a no-brainer. So we’d definitely recommend it to other multi-outlet retailers!

What does your passion come from for what you do?

Brent: The fun! Seeing kids genuinely have fun quality time with their parents. And watching both the children’s and parents’ eyes go wide when they see our play centres for the first time. This is what drives our innovation and inspires us to keep growing. We’re constantly thinking about new ways of surprising people to keep that excitement building.

What’s your best retail tale?

Brent: We’ve had so many great tales, but the one that first comes to mind was our moment with a young boy with cerebral palsy. We wanted him to fully experience the sensation of Flip Out, so we put together a bungee system for him to use. His mum was so moved. Our entire staff watched the whole thing in amazement. It was the best feeling!

Do you have any advice for retailers that you wish you’d known?

Jake: Keep pressing buttons. Do your best to break whatever system it is you’re implementing because if it’s breakable, then it’s not the best it can be. And the same goes with Vend! I’ve always played around with it to discover the best way to get things done.

You have multiple franchises around the country, how has Vend helped with managing all these stores simultaneously?

Brent: Vend has set up a great foundation on which to set up a franchisee. The groundwork is already laid, the standard is set. And then they’re free to build their store on top of that however best suits them! It saves us a lot of time and resources setting up, and it brings consistency across our franchises.

What’s the best thing about using iPads in a lot of your franchises compared to traditional cash registers?

Jake: Everything’s backed up. So if an iPad breaks or something has affected an iPad, I’m not replacing an entire system. Not to mention, traditional cash registers were complicated, and a lot of staff struggled trying to program the register. With Vend I’ve found that even the least tech-savvy staff can change prices or add in a new product. It’s just easy!

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